Researchers at UCLA Health claimed they have discovered the very first drug to rehabilitate the physical effects of stroke in mice. Two candidate drugs were derived from their research into the mechanism of the brain effects of rehabilitation. One of these drugs led to a substantial recovery in the control of movement in the mice after a stroke. These findings are regarded as significant because most patients never fully recover from the effects of suffering a stroke. This is why strokes are the leading cause of disabilities in adults. At the moment, the only form of recovery available to patients is physical stroke rehabilitation, which is not always effective.
A Potential New Form Of Stroke Rehabilitation
According to the lead author of the study, Dr. S. Thomas Carmichael, “The goal is to have a medicine that stroke patients can take that produces the effects of stroke rehabilitation. Rehabilitation after stroke is limited in its actual effects because most patients cannot sustain the rehab intensity needed for stroke recovery.” Other fields of medicine have access to drugs used to treat the condition, such as cancer or cardiology. However, this is not currently the case for patients recovering from a stroke. While physical rehabilitation for stroke patients has been around for decades, the time has come for molecular medicines.
For the study, the researchers wanted to find out exactly how physical stroke rehabilitation helped to improve brain function after a stroke. Their next step was to find out if they could produce a drug that produced similar effects to physical rehabilitation. The researchers discovered that there was a loss of brain connections at a considerable distance from the original site of stroke damage. They found that certain brain cells that were far from the stroke site became disconnected from surrounding neurons. This resulted in a misfire of brain networks responsible for gait and movement.
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Brain Rhythms
They also discovered that some of these lost connections occur in a parvalbumin neuron. These neurons produce gamma oscillations, which link neurons to form networks that produce behaviours, such as movement. These gamma oscillations, or brain rhythms, are lost after a stroke. However, physical rehabilitation brought back these oscillations and repaired lost parvalbumin neuron connections in mouse subjects. The researchers were then able to identify two drugs that could potentially produce these oscillations after a stroke.
These promising drugs worked by exciting the parvalbumin neurons. They found that one drug in particular, DDL-920, resulted in significant movement control recovery in their mice. This study has proven to be impactful in two areas. It managed to identify a circuitry that underlies brain rehabilitation effects. It also managed to identify a unique target for using frugs to rehabilitate the circuitry of the brain by mimicking the effects of physical rehab. However, more studies are still required to determine if the drug is safe for human trials.
The Bottom Line
This revolutionary study by UCLA Health represents a huge advancement in stroke recovery science. Scientists have uncovered how physical rehabilitation restores crucial brain rhythms and then successfully replicated that effect in mice using the drug DDL-920. This paves the way for a fundamentally new approach to post-stroke treatment. Millions of stroke survivors worldwide could benefit from more effective, accessible, and consistent care in the future. However, more testing is still needed to guarantee that these findings can be safely applied to humans.
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